Lorelai's First Time
by daviderl31
Summary: Twentyeight year old Lorelai Gilmore goes into Luke's Diner for the first time.


_AN -- This isNOT a new story. I have only donea minor rewrite of a paragraph or twoto correct a couple of inconsistancies._

**Lorelai's First Time **

**1 **

Rory sleepily shuffled into the kitchen. Lorelai had gotten up barely a minute ahead of her.

"You were up kind of late last night."

"I know. I had some homework I wanted to finish up so I wouldn't have to do it this morning."

"Maybe you're taking this homework obsession thing a little bit far."

"You can never do too much homework, not if you want to get into Harvard."

"Well, Hon, you've still got six or seven years, you don't have to do it all right now."

"I know."

There was a short pause.

"Mom? When are we going to get some furniture?"

"What are you talking about? We HAVE furniture!"

"Yeah -- two beds, a kitchen table and two chairs."

"Hey, don't forget the TV. . . ."

"Which we have to sit on the floor to watch."

"But we love sitting on the floor. And we also have a toaster and the coffee maker."

"Can't we at least get a couch or something?"

"We'll get some furniture, Sweetie, but we don't want to go out get just any old thing. One day you'll look around and say, 'Where did all this stuff come from?' You know we haven't been here that long, have some patience."

"Okay. You know, a desk for my room would be. . . ."

"AAAAAAAUGHHHH"

"What?" Rory shouted.

Then she realized why her mother had screamed in terror -- she dropped a coffee filter full of fresh grounds onto the floor.

"The coffee! It's on the floor!"

"Well, make some more."

"There IS no more, that was the last of it!"

Lorelai was down on her knees, scooping up the spilled grounds and putting them back into the filter.

"Oh NO!" Rory exclaimed. "NO! You are NOT going to make coffee with grounds you scraped off the floor. There is NO way that's going to happen!"

"But -- but it's all we have!"

"Too bad! You should have bought groceries yesterday like you said you were."

Rory pulled her mother up from the floor, put her into a chair, and set the filter on the counter, well away from her.

"But the coffee . . . ." Lorelai whimpered. "The coffee."

"I have to get dressed for school."

Rory left the kitchen, taking the grounds with her.

"I wasn't going to!" Lorelai yelled after her.

**2 **

When Rory came out of her room, Lorelai was still sitting at the table, pouting.

"We need coffee!" She said to Rory. "You need coffee!"

"I can get my caffeine fix from Lane's secret stash of sodas on my way to school."

"But what about me?"

"They have coffee at the inn, get it there."

"Rory, the idea of not having to go in until eight means you do not go IN until eight. If I go in earlier, then it defeats the whole purpose of eight o'clock."

"Then go to Weston's, Fran's coffee is pretty good."

"But she doesn't open up until 7:30, God only knows why!"

"Then either go back to bed or wait until she DOES open."

"How can you be so cold hearted to the very woman who gave you life?"

"Sorry, Charley, that guilt trip no longer leaves the station. I'll see you this afternoon. Oh, I need some lunch money."

"Grab some out of my wallet. It's down in my purse, somewhere."

"Okay, thanks."

Rory kissed Lorelai on the cheek and made a point of showing her she was taking the dirty coffee grounds with her.

**3 **

Reluctanly, Lorelai got dressed and went to work. She needed coffee and the only place she knew where there was any this early was the Independence Inn.

"Hi, Tobin," she said as she walked into the lobby of the inn.

Tobin looked up from the front desk.

"Lorelai!" He exclaimed. He definitely wasn't happy to see her. "I thought you weren't coming in until eight."

"Well, I wasn't, but I ran out of coffee at home, well actually, I spilled the last of the grounds on the kitchen floor, and to make a short story even shorter, here I am."

"But, if you're here now, then that means I'll lose an hour's pay," he whined.

"Don't worry, you'll still get paid, I'm just going into the kitchen, make some coffee and drink it there. You won't even know I'm here."

"Well, okay," Tobin said, still not convinced.

"Just carry on," Lorelai said as she went through the kitchen doors.

Less than five minutes later she came back out of the kitchen.

"Tobin!" she almost yelled.

"What? I thought you weren't coming back out until eight."

"Where's the coffee?"

"In the kitchen?"

"Yes. It's in the kitchen. The DECAF's in the kitchen! Where's the REAL coffee?"

"It hasn't been delivered."

"What are you talking about? We got a shipment in yesterday, I signed for it myself."

"Well, last night I was kind of stocking up, you know, trying to stay busy, and then I noticed that all they sent was the decaf."

"WHAT! Why didn't you call me?"

"It was late, after eleven, and you said you were going to bed early. So I didn't call. I figured you could sort it out today."

"So all we have in there is decaf? There are no real coffee grounds here at all?"

"Maybe in the garbage."

"Well, even I'M not THAT desperate. I guess I'll have to drink the damned decaf!"

Lorelai went back into kitchen and made a pot of decaf coffee, extra strength decaf coffee, with three times the normal amount of grounds. But even so, she "knew" she could taste the absence of caffeine.

When Sookie arrived at seven-thirty to start breakfast, she found Lorelai in a pretty foul mood, and almost the entire pot of coffee gone.

"Honey, I'm sorry. I'd go back home and see if I have any regular coffee, but I really need to get breakfast started. What with the hiker's convention here, they're going to want to eat just as soon as the dining room is open."

"That's okay. I'll live. Not happily, but I'll live."

The morning passed particularly slowly, and particularly aggravatingly, for Lorelai. Every time she thought she could sneak away to Weston's for coffee, something would come up that would require her attention. Nothing that she hadn't done a thousand times before. But as the new manager, she wanted to make sure Mia would know that she hadn't made a mistake naming her manager, so she took extra care that everything was done right.

By the time one o'clock rolled around, Sookie suggested to Lorelai that she go get her coffee fix even though it was the middle of lunch. Lorelai was getting just too cranky. And she was more than happy to leave.

Lorlai arrived at Weston's in record time, and almost pulled her shoulder out of its socket as she snatched on the door, but it wouldn't budge.

Then she noticed the sign on the door -- "Closed for Inventory, Please Come Again"

"WHAT!" Lorelai literally screamed "NO! NO! It can't be! It's a JOKE, a cruel and inhumane joke!"

Lorelai pounded on the door several times, hoping Fran would hear her and come out from the back and let her in. But there was no Fran.

Several passers-by looked at Lorelai as if she was crazy, but she didn't care.

Finally someone said, "You know, Luke's is open."

"Luke's? Luke's what?"

"The diner. You know, the one with the Williams Hardware sign."

"I thought it was a hardware store."

"No. It's a diner."

Lorelai followed the man to the diner, and looking through the window, she saw a gruff looking man with his baseball cap on backwards. And he was walking around and pouring ... COFFEE! ... into large cups.

**4**

Lorelai hurriedly went inside and followed the man to the counter.

"Hi!" she said breathlessly. "Coffee!"

"Sure," he said. "Take a seat and I'll be with you in a minute."

"No. You don't understand. I need coffee. NOW!"

"I said, I'll be with you in a minute. There are other customers ahead of you."

"Please! You don't get it, I need coffee -- immediately!"

"No, I do get it. And you'll get it after I've taken care of these other people."

"But . . . ."

"You want coffee? Then wait your turn."

"But I can't wait!"

"My GOD you're annoying! Sit down, shut up, and I'll get to you when I get to you."

Lorelai sat down at the counter, giving him a dirty look, impatiently waiting her turn. In front of her was a newspaper.

"Hey, when's your birthday?" She asked.

"That's none of your business."

"Come on, when's your birthday?"

"Why do you need to know when my birthday is?"

"For your horoscope."

"I don't believe in all that foolishness."

"Humor me?"

Luke looked around, then said, "No one else is to know, understand?"

"Sure."

Luke looked around once more then whispered close to her ear.

"So, you're a Scorpio, huh? Verrry interesting."

Lorelai opened the paper and leafed through it until she found the horoscopes.

She started writing in the margin next to the paragraph for Scorpio. When she was finished, she tore it out and said, "Here, read this."

"I told you, I don't believe in all that crap. Besides, I'm busy."

"I'll only take you a few seconds, even less if you're a speed reader."

He gave an exasperated sigh, then took the scrap of paper and began to read out loud, "You will meet an annoying woman today. Give her coffee and she'll go away."

He looked up at Lorelai, who was grinning hopefully.

"Okay. You win. Do you want it here or 'to go'?"

"Which is the bigger cup?"

"To go."

"Then that's what I want."

As he was pouring the coffee Lorelai said, "You need to save this. Put it in your wallet and always keep it with you, and one day it will bring you luck."

"Yeah, I'm sure it will."

He put a lid on the cup and handed it to her, but she immediately took the lid off and drank almost half of it down.

"Oh, my God!" She exclaimed.

"What?"

"This coffee!"

"What's the matter with it?"

"This has to be the BEST coffee I have ever had -- EVER!"

"Well, okay, thanks."

"This is amazing coffee!"

"I appreciate the compliment."

Suddenly she realized the time.

"I need to get back to work. Oh, by the way, I'm Lorelai Gilmore. I manage the Independence Inn. Ever been there?"

"Well, I'm Luke Danes. And nah, I'm not much for those fruity bed and breakfast places."

"It is neither fruity NOR a bed and breakfast. It is an historical inn, with a long and famous heritage."

"Well, I've never been there."

"You should come. We have this chef, Sookie St. James, the BEST cook in all of Connecticut, if not the whole of New England."

"Well, maybe, someday, if I get the time."

"So, what do I owe you?" Lorelai asked as she looked for her wallet. "Oh no! My wallet! I must have left it at home. I told my daughter she could get lunch money and she forgot to put it back in my purse."

"Uh HUH!"

"No! Really. Look, you hold onto this coffee and I'll run back to the inn and get the money and I'll be right back."

"I'm not going to hold onto your coffee. Just throw it away."

"But I'm not finished with it. Please! I'll be right back!"

"Look, forget the money, take the coffee. The first cup's on the house."

"Thank you. That's really great."

Lorelai picked up the cup, but when she did, she realized it was only half full.

"How about a refill?"

"Refills are for here only, not to go."

"But I drank it here."

"But it's in a 'to go' cup."

"Yes, I know. But I'm here. I drank it here. I didn't go."

"Gimme the damn cup!"

Lorelai smiled happily as Luke refilled it, put another lid on it and gave it back to her.

"Bye, it was nice meeting you," she said as she left.

"Yeah, you too."

Luke watched her as she left, shaking his head.

"Pretty girl, but man, what a flake," he said to no one in particular.

He started cleaning off the counter when he saw the scrap of newspaper with his horoscope on it. He picked it up and read it again, then looked out through the window at the disappearing Lorelai. And carefully folding it up, he took out his wallet, put the scrap of paper inside of it, then went back to clearing the counter.

**5**

Rory was sitting on the living room floor watching TV and doing homework when Lorelai got home.

"Hey, Sweetie. How was school?"

"It was okay, but not much homework tonight. I think the teacher's are getting lazy."

"Ah, well, a pox on them. Oh! Guess what!"

"What?"

"I had the best, most delicious coffee in the ENTIRE world, this very afternoon!"

"You did? Where?"

"At that Luke's diner, hardware place."

"You didn't really go in there, did you?" Rory was horrified.

"Yeah, I did. Shouldn't I have?"

"That's a TERRIBLE place!"

"Why?"

"Well, the guy that owns the place is EVIL!"

"No!"

"Yes! He won't let you use the bathroom unless you buy something."

"What? Oh, man! How mean can you be?"

"And he wears that hat on backwards because he was in PRISON!"

"I'm shocked! How do you know that?"

"Everybody at school knows it."

"Huh! Duke didn't seem to be so wicked to me."

"Duke? His name is Duke?"

"I think so. I think that's what he said, Duke Lanes, or something like that."

"So somebody named Duke owns Luke's? Doesn't that sound kind of odd?"

"No. Makes perfect sense to me. Maybe he's trying to hide his real identity."

"So he really has good coffee?"

"Oh, Honey, you wouldn't believe how good it was. And they have coffee cups the size of soup bowls! Tomorrow morning, we are going to Duke's for coffee."

**6**

The next morning Lorelai and Rory walked into the diner at 6:30.

"Hey, Duke!" Lorelai sang out.

A few minutes later Luke walked over with a pot of coffee.

"Coffee, as if I had to ask?"

"Yes, please. Oh, and this is Rory, the daughter I was telling you about yesterday."

"Hi," she said. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too. What would you like, some hot chocolate?"

"Actually, I'd like some coffee."

"What? Like half and half with milk and lots of sugar?"

"No. Just plain black coffee."

"How old are you?"

"Twelve."

Luke looked at Lorelai.

"You let this child drink black coffee?"

"Ummm. Yesss."

"Are you crazy? Don't you know what drinking coffee can do to her at her age?"

"Make her pretty like me?"

"No . . . ."

"So, I'm not pretty?"

"What? Of course you are, but that's not the point here. This stuff can poison her metabolism AND get her addicted to caffeine."

"Hey, Duke, chill out, she's been drinking coffee since she was old enough to hold her own bottle."

"The name is LUKE! And I cannot condone polluting this child with black, caffeine-laden coffee."

"It's okay, Luke, it really is." Rory said. "Mom said it was the best coffee around, and I really would like to try some. Please?"

"I must be out of my mind," he said as he poured the coffee.

"I think Luke is a really nice name," Rory said in an innocent tone, looking pointedly at her mother. "Much nicer than Duke."

"Well, thanks," Luke said. "So do I."

"I'm kind of hungry, can we see a menu?"

"I thought you had pop tarts." Lorelai said.

"No, we're out."

"Again? That's the second or third time this week."

"No, it's still the first time! You never bought groceries."

"You feed this child coffee AND pop tarts? What kind of mother are you?"

"She likes pop tarts."

"I like pop tarts."

"Let me get you a menu," he said to Rory in a concerned voice. "You need a decent breakfast -- for a change!" Then he gave Lorelai a hard look.

When he walked away, Lorelai said, "I don't believe this. He likes you better than me!"

"Maybe it's because I don't antagonize him, AND, I actually call him by his real name."

"I'm insulted. I have a good mind to take my business elsewhere."

"Okay. You can go, but I'm staying here. This is really good coffee."

"You can't stay. If I go, you go -- Solidarity, Sister!"

"Sorry, Sister, but this coffee's thicker than blood."

Before Lorelai could continue their banter, Luke brought the menus and handed one to Rory and one to Lorelai.

"I'll have a cheeseburger," Lorelai said.

"You haven't even looked at the menu."

"I know, but I want a cheeseburger."

"For breakfast?"

"Uh huh."

"Uh, Luke, it says you have pancakes. Are they just regular or do you have different kinds?"

"This morning we have blueberry pancakes."

"That sounds good. I have that."

"Okay, one cheeseburger and one stack of pancakes."

"I want pancakes, too."

"Scratch the cheeseburger."

"No, I want the cheeseburger, too."

"You want a cheeseburger AND pancakes?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"

Luke shook his head sadly.

"And I'd like some chili fries." Rory added. "I saw them on the menu and they sound really good."

"So, you don't the pancakes?"

"No, I want them too."

"Let me get this straight. You two want a cheeseburger, chili fries, and two stacks of pancakes? For breakfast?"

"Yes we do."

"You know," he said to Lorelai, "For letting this poor girl eat and drink the things you do, you should be reported ... somewhere ... to someone."

"You're not the first one to say that. Oh, and we could use more coffee."

"I'll get the pot."

Luke turned in their order and brought the coffee over and refilled their cups.

"You know," Lorelai said, "You could save a lot of walking if you'd just leave the pot."

"I'm not leaving the pot."

"Okay, they're your feet."

"Yes they are."

Ten minutes later Luke brought out their order, set it on the table and poured more coffee.

"That looks positively revolting."

"Hey, you made it, not me! You know, if you wanted to . . . ."

"I'm not leaving the pot."

Back at the counter, and still not believing it, Luke watched them as they ate the appalling breakfast and washed it down with the strong, black coffee.

**7**

"Well, I guess I better get to school. Hey, Mom, do you think we could do this again sometime? You know, eat breakfast here?"

"I don't see why not."

"Maybe tomorrow?"

"If you'd like."

"I would like."

"Then it's a date. Look, if you come by the inn after school I'm sure I can find some filing or something for you to do to pick up some extra money."

"Okay, that sounds good. I'll see you then."

"Have a good day, Hon. Love you."

"Love you, too. 'Bye."

As she opened to door to leave, Rory yelled out, "Bye, Luke. Thanks for breakfast. It was really good!"

Luke looked up and waved as she left.

Lorelai watched her daughter until she was out of sight, finished her coffee, then went to the counter for her check.

But when Luke handed it to her, she found an error.

"Hey, Duke," she said holding out the check to him. "There's a mistake here."

Luke grabbed her hand and the check together and pulled them down to the counter.

"The only mistake here is that you seem to have a problem remembering my name!"

"Are we going steady now?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Well, you're holding my hand. Usually when a guy holds a girl's hand it's because they're going steady."

Luke jerked his hand away as if he had touched a hot stove.

"No. We are not going steady."

"Okay, just wanted to clear that up. Now, about this bill -- you charged us for two coffees."

"Well, you drank two coffees, almost two full pots of coffee."

"But yesterday, you said the first cup was on the house, and it was Rory's first cup."

"You drank TWO pots!"

"But it was Rory's first cup."

"Gimme that!"

Luke scratched out one of the coffees and refigured the bill.

"There! You happy now?"

"Look what you've done."

"I changed the bill! It's what you wanted me to do!"

"But it doesn't come out even. I can't figure out the tip."

"Forget about the tip! Just pay the bill."

"Well, if that's the way you want it. Oh, can I have a cup to go?"

"You want coffee to go?"

"That's what I just said."

"After drinking two pots of coffee you want more?"

"Well, Rory drank some too."

"And you couldn't have told me before I changed the ticket?"

"I just thought about it."

"Look, just pay the bill, and the one 'to go' is on the house."

"So the first AND second cups are on the house?"

"YES! For you and you only!"

"Well, thank you."

"Don't mention it. Again. Ever!"

Luke fixed the coffee and handed it to Lorelai. She paid, got her change, but just stood there.

"What?"

"You didn't say 'Come again.' You're supposed to say 'Come again' when the customer pays her bill."

"And why would I say that? You do nothing but make trouble for me. You order disgusting combinations of perfectly good food. You take advantage of my free refills. You act as if you're the only customer in the place. And you can't even remember my name! So, tell me again why I should ask you to come again?"

"Because you like me." Lorelai said with a cutesy grin.

"Because I . . . ! Whatever gave you THAT idea?"

"You give me free coffee."

"To shut you up, and to get you out of here."

"If you say so, but -- I don't know."

Lorelai turned to go and was half way to the door.

"Hey. Lorelai."

She turned around and saw that Luke almost had a smile on his face.

"Come again," he said with rarely-heard warmth in his voice.

"Thanks," she replied, equally as warm, and flashed him an unbelievably gorgeous smile.

"I will."


End file.
